“It was the
people themselves, convinced that a great injustice was in the works”

by Charles Walker

They came and they came and still they came,
marching on, converging on, descending on San Francisco’s Civic Center. No one
who was there can really say how many antiwar demonstrators turned out, densely
packing San Francisco’s main drag, blocking side streets, overrunning sidewalks.
Surely too many to fit inside the open-air pedestrian mall that flanks the
city’s massive library, its civic auditorium, and federal and state buildings,
and that abuts the golden-domed city hall. Saturday’s antiwar mobilization was
about people, lots and lots and, yes, lots more people, easily dwarfing last
October’s antiwar turnout in the same location.

I first became aware of the enormous numbers
making their way to San Francisco when I failed to find a parking space at an
outlying subway station, normally near-empty on a weekend day. Inside the
station, marchers waited in long lines to get tickets, something I haven’t
seen, even on a workday. On the ten-car train, folks with signs and T-shirts,
spelling out their worries and concerns about war in the Middle East, stuffed
the aisles.

As they poured out of the subway exits, hundreds
of others who had completed the march were already lining the opposite
platforms, returning home. Perhaps that was not such a bad idea, for the rally
site couldn’t begin to hold all the protesters. Those who were there could
barely move; organizations’ tables and stands were virtually cut off from the
mass, except for those nearby who found themselves locked in, held all but
immobile by everyone else.

The usual expressions—“wall-to-wall people,”
“vast hordes,” “sea of humanity”—fail to do justice to the turnout.
Surprisingly, the area’s major press and television stations for a couple of
days carried stories about the expected tens of thousands of rally-goers. “May
outnumber the huge numbers that protested the Vietnam War, some thirty years
ago,” the media said. But it wasn’t the media attention that packed the mall,
nor was it the antiwar groups that strained to achieve a massive turnout. It
was the people themselves, convinced that a great injustice was in the works.
That’s what did the trick. It was folks just looking for a time and a place to
voice their declaration, “Not in my name!”

Two and a half hours after the rally was to
begin, the last of the throng was still three blocks away, heading for the
carnival of heartfelt protest, many, no doubt, for the first time.

A March and
Rally of 400,000 or More

by Roland Sheppard

This was a huge demonstration.
Public transit trains, buses, and trolleys were jammed from the beginning with
people heading for the starting place of the march. People who could not get on
public transportation were marching down Market Street in a vain attempt
to get to the beginning of the march.

The march filled all lanes and
the sidewalks of Market Street. After one and a half hours the Civic Center
rallying point was jammed to capacity as marchers kept coming while other
demonstrators were leaving. All over the five-square-block area surrounding the
Civic Center the sidewalks were crammed with demonstrators!

Some friends of mine never made
it to the rally because it was so crowded. (One friend marched for three hours
and decided to go home—never getting to the rally.)

Attached is a photo of the start
of the march (at Market St. and Embarcadero). This is also how the march looked
to me 9 blocks later, at 16th and Market, at 12 noon. An hour and a half later
it was still just as massive, looking down Market from 9th St. (The march went
right on 7th St.)